Jensen Ackles – Keeping It Fresh at ChiCon

Jared and Jensen made their fourth visit to Chicago Con on Sunday – we were feeling nostalgic to be back, and Jensen seemed to be feeling it too. He looked around the Q & A room nodding hello to the familiar faces he’s gotten to know over the last four years, then asked if there was anyone there that he didn’t know. Only one new person — from Chicago. Ten minutes away.

Jensen: Oh, long schlep here.

(Fan: Totally worth it…)

Jensen: I like Chicago. Actually my brother was born here. My dad worked at WGN as a technician. They had Josh and then they moved back to Texas right before they had me.

Jensen has the next few days off so he’s heading back to Dallas, where he’ll get the chance to sit in his house with his family and watch the game, something he says he rarely gets to do.

The next question was an interesting one, and gave us a chance to envision the tables turned from what we’re used to at a con – and to ‘see’ Jensen having a bit of a fanboy moment.

Fan: We come here from all over, we buy photo-ops and autographs and fangirl you….and we know that Jared fangirls Pearl Jam….so who do you fan over?

Jensen: (deadpans) Nobody.

Fans: (are laughing)

Jensen then proceeded to contradict his denial with an amusing story, most of it acted out so we could imagine it quite vividly. In all its amusing detail.

Jensen: I had this conversation with my wife Danneel yesterday. We were walking down the street, and there were a couple of those kind of reactions, you know, where someone walks by and they do the double take and then they go “Ohhhhh!!!!!” at me and then I’m like, “What??”

(This was acted out quite convincingly….)

Jensen: But when I do see famous people, like the other day Dustin Hoffmann was right in front of me getting coffee and I was like “oh” and that’s about the biggest reaction I actually have. Danneel actually though, she’s Miss Cool to me. She never gets really excited. But the other day I saw her kind of lose it. I was on a flight from Vancouver back to Los Angeles and Jared was on the flight with me and I recognized the guy who was sitting behind him. It’s funny, Jared and I fly back and forth so much, that we don’t sit with each other anymore. Because he likes the left side of the plane and I like the right side of the plane. It’s weird, you fly that much it’s like “No, I like 3F, that’s my seat,” And he’s like “I like 2A.” But we’ll talk, you know, anyway.

Fans (Imagining the hapless passengers stuck in between them….)

Jensen: So I kinda recognized the guy behind him and I was like “Oh wow” because I’ve been a big fan of his and I kind of geeked out. So as we were walking through the terminal I was like “Hold on Jared, I gotta do something” and I turned around and said “Hey man, I just wanted to say I’m a big fan, I hope you do another cowboy movie sometime soon. It was Luke Perry. “Eight Seconds” is one of my favorite movies. And he stopped, took his bag off his shoulder, and he was like, “It’s so nice to meet you, what’s your name?”

Jensen: (in the same voice we all respond with when he or Jared ask us that question) “Jensen.”

Luke Perry: “I recognize you, you do that Supernatural show. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on all your success.”

Jensen: (not sounding anything like a fanboy….ahem….) And I said “You were amazing in 8 Seconds!”

Fans: (silently) I think I said something like that to Misha yesterday….

Jensen: And he said, “I’ll tell you what. If I find a good cowboy script, I might give you a call.” And then Jared went to go get coffee or something cause Gen was going to pick him up and Danneel was waiting for me downstairs – she was just across the street in the parking garage – and I’m walking out and I noticed that Luke walked out right next to me, and I was like “Hey, here we are again.” And we’re walking across the street to the parking lot and Danneel had gotten out [of the car] and as we walked up I could see, like all the blood drain out of her face. I’m saying “This is my wife Danneel” and he’s like nice to meet you and she’s like nice to meet you and he turns away and I looked at her and I just asked, “Are you OK?” And she was like “It’s Dylan!” I don’t think I’ve ever seen her lose her composure like that. And Jared fangirls over Pearl Jam, but it hasn’t happened to me. When it does, I’ll let you know.

Fans: (silently) Okay, sure. Because it didn’t happen at all there with Luke Perry.

We actually love hearing about the fannish moments of the people we fan. One of these days we’re sure someone is going to leave Jensen as flustered as his wife was by Mr. Perry.

Somehow, the Q & A went from fan encounters to firearms. Then again, both topics are SPN related, aren’t they? A fan recently deployed in Afghanistan, who happens to know her way around a weapon, wanted to know how the boys learned to clean and load and lock their weapons so well.

Jensen: Actually we have a friend of ours, he’s special forces, he’s done like seven tours of Iraq, who lives down in Washington state, just across the border. And Clif got in contact with him and we go down there – he has a three acre gun range in his front yard. I actually was there just two weeks ago. We were shooting all kinds of 1911’s, Glocks, fully automatic, really intense, teaching us how to clean our weapons and load, We’re definitely not nearly as pro as I’d like to be, but for what we do, for the movie magic it is, I can take apart my double barrel side by side shotgun and Sam’s Beretta. I can take them all apart without looking at them, while saying my lines. That was the biggest challenge. In fact, I’ll show you a little something here. This is a little video that Clif took of me, just a couple weeks ago. I was trying to do a stance…

Jensen proceeds to jump up and pull out his iPhone and motions us all to gather around so we can watch the videos.

Jensen: We get to play around. I like to go down there whenever I can.

Fan: But when would Dean ever have to shoot something like that?

Jensen: (smirking) He wouldn’t.

Switching gears entirely and rather precipitously once again, a fan wanted to show Jensen a photo of a friend’s new baby, who happened to be named Jensen.

Jensen: You know what’s funny? I popped out with a full head of hair, just like that. I actually popped out with a full ‘fro. My dad was like “hummmmmm??” Then after six months I went like platinum blonde and I was blonde blonde until I was about twelve.

Fans: Awwww

Fan: You are a fantastic director from what we can see.

Jensen: I’m still learning.

Fan (continues): My favorite line from the episode you directed was the one about the wildebeest.

Seriously, those are the little touches that make the Show so special. And we love to know about them!

A fan asked who makes decisions about things like music, since she was happy to hear the GooGoo Dolls in that episode. Jensen explained that’s post production. He (as director) gives suggestions, and the editor will give him some options

Jensen: On the first cut they had an old Belle and Sebastian song and then I guess they couldn’t get clearance so they had to go down the line and eventually they got to the Goo Goo Dolls’ song.

Apparently the GooGoo Dolls weren’t quite as high on production’s list as they were on that fan’s.

Fan: Will you try anything different the next time you direct?

Jensen: You know, I really enjoy the action sequences. In “Weekend at Bobby’s” the wood chipper scene, which is basically a fight scene — I got a real rush out of directing the fight scene. I’ve always been attracted to, as an actor, when we get fight scenes. It’s almost like choreographing a dance. It’s like three left, three right, block, parry, shove. So it’s really this unique choreography that I like to do. I didn’t really get a good fight scene in “The Girl Next Door.” I had the kids, I had young Sam, had a little tussle with the boys outside the library. But those kids were not trained to fight, they had no experience with stage fighting or anything like that. So I just kind of had to hide the fact that they really didn’t know how to throw a punch. I’m not sure I knew how to throw a punch at that age either. But I hope that next time I get a bigger action sequence to direct. A car chase would be fun. Those kind of things would be exciting to direct because there’s so much going on, whereas just a scene with two people talking – you have to get really creative because you don’t want the audience to fall asleep while they’re listening. So I’d like to do more of that kind of stuff.

Fan: What’s your favorite season of Supernatural?

Jensen: I know my least favorite – last season. And that would be personal issues with workload and storyline and the character. In the beginning of last season I guess I felt a little lost. Sam was soulless, so I didn’t have my partner in crime. But my character wasn’t actually progressing, it was just all about the progression of Sam, so selfishly I was like, come on, I understand it’s Sam’s storyline, but it was Dean-centric, so that was kind of throwing me off. We got through it and Jared did a great job, but I was glad to be done with that storyline. As far as my favorite, I still love Season One, just because of the formula – it was simple, it was tight, we were still getting to know each other, the characters were starting to develop and I liked the fun nuances between the brothers. And I liked that simple formula – the monster of the week episodes. I understand that the show needs the mythology and I applaud Kripke for how he did that but I do like the monster of the week episodes.

Fan: What do you think about Dean’s story arc in Season Seven?

Jensen: It’s been a bit of a relaxed season so far, as far as my character goes. There’s a lot happening around us, and with Castiel gone, what it’s done is force the brothers to get back together and rely on each other. It feels a bit like going back to Season One. The two brothers against the world, and I do like that.

Fan: In the last episode, I was literally screaming at the screen “Just tell him!”

Other fans: (nodding vehemently)

Jensen: (laughing ) Yeah, it will happen soon.

Fans: Phew!

The next question was rather creative.

Fan: You seem horrified by the idea of doing Supernatural the Musical. Were you traumatized as a child by a musical?

Turns out Ackles doesn’t have a dark history of being victimized by musical theater. Quite the contrary in fact.

Jensen: Actually, I did a musical in high school. I’d never sung before anybody in my life, and the drama teacher said, I really want you to try out. Somehow she convinced me to do it my senior year. I was like, “It’s my senior year in high school, what do I have to lose, why not?” And she ended up giving me the lead in West Side Story. I played Tony.

Fans: Not exactly a small part!

Jensen: For someone who’s never sung before in front of people – yeah!

Apparently Ackles has always enjoyed a challenge.

Jensen: So baseball season had ended, we didn’t get picked to go to the playoffs, so I asked my coach and the coach was like “You’ve given me three years of your life, go do it. (Cause that’s all I did through high school was play baseball. ) Go get as much out of your high school experience as you can, I’ll support you.” And I was like, okay. And of course, the girl that got Maria was like this all state choir phenom but had never done any acting, and I’d had a drama class – just like an elective, cause you know you have to take an art class. And I can’t draw, but I thought, I can act like an idiot, so I’ll do that. So she helped me with singing and I helped her with the acting part and we made it happen. It wasn’t traumatizing, but I think the whole Supernatural Musical thing – I’ve always played Dean as someone who can’t sing very well. If somebody could figure out a way to do Supernatural as a musical and keep it true to the characters, I’m sure that there could be a hard look at it.

Hey, Ben Edlund did the puppets episode of Angel, right? Why not the musical version of Supernatural??

Fan: Is there ever a time when you read a script and you say to your character, “Dean! What are you thinking?”

Jensen: All the time. Seriously. Usually just certain lines, because we get new writers. I know that every year they have to take at least one outside submission, so basically someone who has never written for the show. They understand the show because their script got picked, and it’s a good script, but it’s just that sometimes the dialog isn’t really true to character. So I’ll either sit down and rewrite the lines to tailor it to Dean or just call Sera or Bob and say “Hey, this particular scene doesn’t sound like Dean at all. That’s happened maybe twice this year. There’s a scene between Jared and I, Sam and Dean, in fact I think it’s the next episode, it’s the end scene. We have like a falling out, an argument. And I kid you not, the scene was like straight out of a romantic comedy. It was like a break-up between a woman and a man. Right out of a romantic comedy.

Fans (silently) Wait, is this canon or fanfiction??

Jensen: And Jared and I were in the make-up trailer that morning and I hadn’t really read the scene before then, and I was like “Dude, we gotta change this!” So he and I sat there in the make-up trailer and rewrote the scene to make it closer to our characters. And we didn’t even tell the producer. And then it happened again two episodes later, there was another scene and we were like, “What is happening??” And that time we finally called Sera and said we’re changing the scene. But it all says the same stuff, it’s just the way of saying it. I think one of Jared’s lines was when I go to move toward Sam and he goes “Don’t! Just don’t! I can’t even look at you right now!”

Fans: (are hysterical)

Jensen: And we were like “No way! I’m not saying that!” So we made it a little bit more manly. So yes, there are times when we look at the script and change lines. The writers trust us enough to know, I mean, we love these characters. We want to protect them, we would never do anything to make them look worse.

The Q & A wrapped with a question about how you keep a television show that’s been on the air for seven seasons fresh and exciting.

Fan: After seven seasons, how can you keep things fresh for your characters and not just phone it in?

Jensen: Sometimes I do feel like that. Sometimes if I’m tired, or I’m grumpy or I’m sick. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve had to work while being sick. I’ve had over a 100 degree temperature and still worked a thirteen hour day, but like you also said, we’ve been doing it for so long, that the immediate connection that we have with those characters is there. The director says “Action” and I feel like I know this character so well I just go right into being Dean.

Fan: Do you and Jared prompt each other?

Jensen: Absolutely! Absolutely. He’ll come over and say “Hey, you’re missing that line.” We’re constantly watching each others’ backs. If I feel like he has a better take I’ll be like “Do another one, go again.” So quality control [goes on between the two of us]. Some days it’s tough — but we hope that you don’t see that.

You know what? Most of the time we don’t. Thanks for the hard work that makes it look easy, boys.

That’s all for now, folks. Check back for our chats from Chi Con with Chad Lindberg and Misha Collins soon!

I’m fine with what they do, plenty of places focus on Jared. Jensen’s quieter and seems to be more comfortable and at ease, more himself, with small gatherings like the Meet & Greets. Let people who are interested in Jensen and want to pay attention to him there, do so, including the lovely women who write these articles.

From what I’ve heard, these bloggers pay their own expenses to attend these cons. It’s up to them whose M&Gs they attend and report on, surely? There will be plenty of Samgirl bloggers reporting on his, so can’t we have ours without people like you complaining?

They pay their own way. They shouldn’t be guilt tripped into spending hundreds of dollars on something simply because a few fans want one more report about Jared’s M & G. Jared gets more than enough attention at these conventions, I don’t see what’s so bad about one site focusing just a teeny tiny bit more on Jensen by going to his Meet and Greets to let us fans know what goes on in them.

This is response to those who keep saying that Jared gets plenty of reports from his Meet and Greets; I’m sorry but that’s BS. I always see big Jensen M&G reports, but there are never any for Jared and if we do get them, it’s a rarity. Just sayin’.

Leilana, why don’t you take that up with the many Samgirl bloggers who did attend Jared’s M&G instead of criticizing these bloggers? Surely it’s up to those Samgirl bloggers to post their reports if they were there? Or perhaps you should pay out of your own pocket to attend one of jared’s M&Gs and post a report yourself?

You and all the other Sam/Jared stans on here complaining are sounding really entitled. If Samgirl bloggers don’t report on Jared’s M&Gs, or make little effort to publicize their reports when they do, then take it up with them. Or visit the many Sam-leaning forums like Winchester Family Business and supernatural.tv, where you will find those bloggers waxing lyrical about Jared. Just a suggestion.

Lovely report! Why make this great report into an argument concerning lack of JP, there is plenty of reports concerning him. Please fangasm, keep doing these JA reports. We Jensen fans need these, as there seems to be a total lack of good stuff for his character Dean nowadays. Reports like these, gives us something to look forward to at least.🙂

Thank you! Don’t worry, we’ll keep doing these reports whenever we’re able to be somewhere — and we’ve promised to do our best to cover some Jared Q&A’s too. We would really like to cover everything, but working 3 jobs to do it is probably a bad idea….at least our families think so!

Wow…it was not my intention to cause a ruckus here. I deeply appreciate this blog and what the authors contribute to it. I would never be able to do what they do, and I never meant to come off as if I was complaining. I was trying to express how excited I get when I see a new posting. As many of us fans can’t attend these events, I love the detail and thoroughness; it makes me feel like I’m there! After reading the posts, I still want to savor the moment. I simply intended to say that the authors can never write enough about SPN. I want to read more, to know more and more! I never meant to be insulting. I apologize for not editing my post. After reading the follow-up comments, I certainly see how vague my original post was. I too think this was a lovely report, and I regret having offended the authors and their audience.

And although I didn’t mean to be divisive either, I meant to type Jensen instead of Jared!! I do love them both, but in my heart I’m a Team Dean Girl!

The funny thing is, we were pretty sure you meant to type Jensen in there, which would have been a different message. LOL. Thank you for your kind words, we’re very glad you’re enjoying our for-fun blog and no worries, not offended. One of the reasons we adore fandom is that fans take the time to do what you just did — come back and clarify and leave such a lovely comment. Fans rock🙂

We wish you could attend them all too!! Actually, we wish WE could afford to attend them all and blog about every single one of them! Joining you in finger-crossing for the musical. Would that not be incredible??

WOW, that was great.. It’s good to see the fans asking so many good questions and with you reporting it like this, it just feels like being there! Thanks for sharing the feeling with the rest of us who can’t be there!! I always look forward to read your reports especially Jensen’s “Q & A ” s..
Jensen is awesome for answering them all with patience and like everyone of them are the most important question in the world!
I wish I could join one of these sessions, meet Jensen is person and ask one of my questions, but till then I’m grateful for your detailed reports! Thank you SO much!🙂

This is a really really great report. Gosh, Jensen is simply brilliant. Although I’ve met him, I didn’t think it was possilble to appreciate the character he plays or the person he is even more than I already do. I was wrong. Thank you so much for givng me an insight of this remarkable man!

Well, if Dean suddenly can sing really good, that would be supernatural – but hey, isn’t the show called Supernatural? Shapeshifter, Trickster, witchcraft, singing potion, name it!
So if a musical happens, they totally should Jensen do the dance choreography (and Jared the stretching!).
Oh, I love all those little tidbits about the show. Thank you so much for typing up the report.
BTW, I came out with a full hair-do too – long and black. One year and 4 hair-cuts later I was blonde.

Great idea, I’d love for it to be some sort of “singing spell” or singing potion but where Dean can actually SING(because we know Jensen can:)) – I think that would be more fun than a shapeshifter or trickster because then it wouldn’t be “Dean” it would just be a monster pretending to be Dean.🙂 (Hey that might be a good episode to bring back the Starks, of course James and Charisma probably had their share of that stuff in the Whedonverse)

That would be like me going to a popular Sam-biased forum where I believe you post, looking at its ChiCon report on the Js’ panel and saying, wow, another gigantic picture of Jared, do tell, what a surprise.

Ha. I love the story of BOTH Jensen and Danneel fangirling Luke. I know I would have done it too if I met Dylan McKay in the flesh.. just saying! 😉

I just love how totally honest Jensen is at these meet & greets. I have to agree with him about last season — my least favorite as well. But I’m glad he sticks up for his character (and Jared/Sam as well) and wants to make the best product possible for the fans. By season 7 of a show many actors would just show up for the paycheck, but not Jensen. It shows he’s not only an actor on the show but also a real fan of the show.

It’s pretty extraordinary that after 7 seasons everyone cares so much about the Show — the actors, the crew, the fans. Really says something about how special Supernatural is that we all have continued to care so much. And you’re welcome!🙂

Thanks for the report. I’m still a little annoyed that you guys are only reporting on Jensen, but at least it’s good. (I know you guys said that you were going to do a Jared Q&A next year, but it’s still a little sad to have to wait so long when the passed three conventions have been Jensen. It seems so biased and sad, but I sort of understand. I mean, I get it mentally, but I can’t convince my inner-Jared fan that it isn’t.)

I like that the guys change lines that they don’t agree that their characters would say. I curious to see if they could actually make the scene work. I guess we’re find out if they could do it on Friday. There have been a couple of episodes this season I found the dialog strange and un-Supernatural-like. But I guess there is just no way around it at times.

I wanted to apologize for my comment. I did not think that I was being rude when I said that I was annoyed. Please understand that I do enjoy your reports on Jensen and my inner-Jensen fan finds them wonderful. My intention was not to be a rude Jared fan. I am sorry that it came across that way. I try to be a fan of both Js, but a part of me was being impatient. I apologize to anyone who thought that my comment was out of line. I could never afford to go to convention, so it is very nice to be able to read on websites about them convention. Since this website is the only website that has consistent and good reporting on the conventions, I tend to read the reports here.

I was not trying to harass in any shape or form or cause any sort of trouble. I will continue to read your reports, but I will refrain from commenting in the future to prevent myself from being rude. If I knew how to delete my comment I would. I understand that it is your website and your money and I would never intentionally tell anyone what to do, especially when what you already do is done so well.🙂

I do find your report and blogs a joy to read. They are well-written and nicely done. Thank you. Again, I am sorry for my rudeness.

Katherine, thank you so much. But rest assured, we also get it — we’re fans too, and fans want to hear as much as they possibly can about who they fan. Impatience sometimes goes with the territory! We hope you’ll continue to read and comment — we do this for fun, and honestly want to share with other fans, so please let us know what you think. Interviews don’t cost money but M&G’s do — Our upcoming books have equal amounts of interview content from Jared as from Jensen, and Jared has some incredibly insightful things to say, so we hope you’ll enjoy that too🙂

Thanks for another great report!
Jensen and Luke! My dream came true.
Also it looks like Jensen isn’t that happy about current season which is understandable since there’s no storyline for Dean. Again.

Thanks again for doing a great job letting us practically *be* there at Jensen’s Q&A.

It sounds like Luke Perry was suitably impressed, so who knows?! There are rules about taking some outside writing submissions every season, so sometimes the writers will inevitably be new — luckily the cast and crew know these characters inside out by now. And we agree, Dean is unforgettable🙂

Thanks so much for writing up these Jensen meet and greets! You guys all have such great discussions there! Love hearing Jensen’s thoughtful answers to some really terrific questions.

(And seriously, this is your blog, not the CW’s official PR site. I appreciate that you write about whichever events you’re able to attend. Seeing as how there are other participants at these meet and greets. perhaps one of those Jared fans could consider posting their own reports on their blogs/LJs/the many SPN discussion boards. It’s not like any of this is exclusive or top secret info.)

I agree. I think that some fans think that it is more of a “professional” site, because the bloggers are studying fandom and writing books, etc., and are disappointed when almost everyone has been interviewed, some of them repeatedly, except the other lead of the show.

In the end though, they are just 2 fangirls going to their favorite actor’s Q & A. I love how detailed the reports are and I’d love them to do one on Jared, but it’s their blog, I agree, and they can fangirl anyone they want.

At the M&Gs, you’re exactly right, we’re just two fangirls wishing we could afford to go to all of them! Interviews, in contrast, don’t cost anything. The interviews we share here happen when the actors volunteer their time to sit down with us and give us an update — they have all been tremendously supportive of our books and this blog. Both Jared and Jensen have an open invitation to give us an update for the blog at any time — we promise to drop everything in fact! They both contributed their insights to our books, which are the professional version of our research, and there the coverage is equal, both in words and photos.

I’m glad Jensen notices and cares enough, even after all these years and with so little to show for it, to try and make things better when it comes to the sometimes godawful writing on the show lately but Jensen(and Jared) are not being paid to write the show and they shouldn’t have to do that sort of thing.

Thanks again for the awesome report and I personally am glad that you’ve focused so much on Jensen. Because he’s a little more reserved and doesn’t go for the social networking stuff, it sometimes feels like he gets left out so to me things like this even things up a little

I think the bits of dialogue the boys changed up were small changes, but it’s pretty extraordinary that they care so much about the characters, especially after all this time. Of course, it’s pretty extraordinary how much we as fans still care too!🙂

You’re welcome — I imagine playing against Jared, who’s so familiar, when he was playing such a different Sam, was very challenging for Jensen. Seems like everyone’s happy when the boys are back on the same page (including us!)🙂

Thanks for the great write up! I was the fan in front of you from Australia, who asked the question about the audio on the TV. The My Bloodiest Valentine & Wildebeast doco. Oh and yeah, that Goo Goo doll song! This was my Q&A with Jensen and it was just so wonderful. He is so engaging. He’s very warm and open and really makes you feel interesting and important when you speak to him. I loved that he went around the room, ticking us all off in his mind as he recognised us from past interactions. That video he showed, and getting us to huddle in with him was great. Best bit? That cheesy grin he gave to the camera after he finished shooting the 1911! I loved that we all cracked up and so did he. This was a great experience. I am always blown away by how gracious he is with all of us. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to do a con without a Jensen Q&A now! Better start saving for the LA one! -Amy

Hi Amy!!! So good to ‘see’ you here! The sharing of the phone vids was hysterical — and a nice feeling since it removed the fan/celebrity boundary that often seems like almost a physical reality. It’s nice that the boys are comfortable taking it down at this point and just interacting without the need for a ‘safe space’ in between. Very nice to meet you — hope to run into you again at the LA con🙂

First, I think you should go to the M&Gs that YOU! want to go to and not feel pressure from a few rude apples who seem to want to tell you how to spend your hard-earned $. It’s your $ to do with as you please(and I know these things are not cheap) and personally, I’m with those who feel that because Jensen is more reserved, he has a more “intimate” fanbase, of which you are clearly a part of-so if your going to a JP M&G means no Jensen M&G for us who look so forward to these, I hope you will consider what I’ve said.
As for the report…SO! GOOD!!!! Again. He seems to be so honest with you all and how great was it that he invited everyone to gather around his phone video?! *Loves Him. So much.* Thank you again. You gals ROCK! so hard.

Thank you so much for your kind words, we’re so glad you enjoy our write-ups. The difficult thing is, we really DO wish we could go to all of them — I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to all of them? These guys are awesome — smart, interesting, creative, funny. What’s not to like? Jared’s interview for our book was amazing, as was Jensen’s. Hopefully that will help when the books come out🙂

Thank you so much for this report! I love Jensen’s responses. I agree with him about Season 6; it’s my least favorite season too.

I adore the Luke Perry story, Jensen “fangirling” because of “8 seconds” and Danneel fangirling because of “90210.” Too cute!

I also want to apologize for the rude fans who are harrassing you and trying to tell you how to spend your money. It’s okay to want to go to Jensen’s meet and greets. There are a number of others who report on Jared’s meet and greet, for example, Alice Jester. She’s admitted that she’s a biased Sam/Jared fan, they can read about Jared’s meet and gree there. I don’t see anyone harrassing Alice to do more reports and interviews with Jensen, so I think it’s rude for these so-called fans to whine to you.

I just wanted you to know that there are more of us out there who appreciate your reports and the time and money you spend, especially those of us who can’t get to these events. We live vicariously through you! Thank you!

You’re very welcome, and thank you. We are admittedly (unabashedly) Dean!girls, and you’re so right, our friend Alice is a total Sam!girl. To each his own🙂 Hopefully that means it all gets covered somewhere!

That was an awesome write-up, thanks so much! Jensen is darling; the story about LP was too cute, and I love hearing his thoughts about the show. I’d wondered how he felt about season six, and it’s cool to hear him being a little more forthright about it now that the season’s in the past. Of course, it kind of makes me wonder what he’ll say about season 7 once it’s wrapped.😉 And I’m so glad they changed that line; that would’ve sounded so out of place. Thanks again!

P.S. Tina and Katherine J, do feel free to send cash to these writers if you’d like to complain about which panels they go to. After all, THEY are paying for the meet and greet. When YOU are paying for it, you can make the decisions. This is basic courtesy.

You’re very welcome, glad you enjoyed. And yes please, anyone who wants to sponsor our attendance at a M&G, we are at your service! LOL. Seriously, we really do wish we could go to all of them. How awesome would that be??

I have been reading your Jensen meet and greet reports for ages but have never properly thanked you for them. So thanks. You guys do a great job of making us feel like we are right there with you. I also love how open and giving he is during these more intimate gatherings so I thank you and him for giving us a deeper insight into behind-the-scenes process. I love Jared too but he has a bigger personality so I often feel like he tends to get more attention at these cons, so your reports with Jensen are especially appreciated. He always comes across as so thoughtful and grounded.

That’s a good way to put it — thoughtful and well grounded. I think we may have said that to both the J’s at some point. We feel lucky to have fallen into fanning a show with such wonderful cast and crew and fans. Thanks so much for letting us know you’re enjoying the blog🙂

So do you ever post Jared Q&As? Or is this really just a Jensen-obsessed blog? Of course, you said Misha and Chad so that can’t be it. Unless you have something against Jared… That’s not remotely cool. I mean, nobody tells you how to ~spend your money, as seems to be the popular argument. It is, however, a shame that you don’t do Jared because this blog is always such quality and we need more of that, you know. Especially when Jensen and Jared are a packaged deal.

What is cool, despite the aforementioned, is that at least you guys post actual content. It’s not typical fan rambling or ship biased (fanfiction is taking over this fandom and not in a good way) bullshit. So thanks for that! It’s so good to see little insights into who Jensen is. His stories are always adorable.

I got the feeling that both Jensen AND Jared disliked season 6. Many things they’ve both said in the past indicated it but this is the first time Jensen has really said it outright. In the last season Dean progressed too little and Sam progressed incorrectly. I think the writers were in a hurry to finish what Kripke started (which is probably why Kripke wrote the Sam-centric finale) and move on to season 7 which is, so far (and like Jensen said) more laid back and coherent and on-track to be one of the best seasons. So yeah, great to hear him acknowledge that. It’s also great to hear him give so much credit to his co-star. One thing I’ve noticed about them is how courteous they are to one another and guests like Misha, Jim, Sebastian, etc. Jensen always seems so genuine.

We wanted to clarify very clearly here – we think the world of both Jared and Jensen. Just as they think the world of each other. And Misha, Jim, Sebastian, Richard, Matt, Chad….etc etc. These guys are all 100% supportive of one another, which is one of the best things about fanning — and researching — this Show. We would LOVE to be able to interview Jared and Jensen again, but that’s not something you can just call up and make happen, alas. We have interviews with many of the actors who’ve guest starred on Supernatural here, because they graciously volunteered their time to update us (and the fandom) on what they’re up to. Both Jared and Jensen gave us thoughtful, in-depth interviews for our books, so the coverage there is equal. Interviews are free, if you’re lucky enough to get them — M&G’s are most definitely not. Hope that clarifies!

Rogue said: I mean, nobody tells you how to ~spend your money, as seems to be the popular argument. It is, however, a shame that you don’t do Jared because this blog is always such quality and we need more of that, you know.

Wow. You dare SHAMING them for doing what they like to do in THEIR OWN BLOG? How rude.

Wow Rogue, it’s things like this that almost make me wish for the day when Jensen Ackles has another job, just so that way I can get away from this “package deal” garbage where somehow whenever Jensen gets an ounce of attention from anyone there are always a few loud people complaining that Jared hasn’t gotten the same thing.

Of the two, I always prefer the Jensen M&G. I’m sorry, but in my opinion the Jared M&G is not as interesting and hardly ever deals with the show. He answers the questions asked by his fans, and those seem mainly about personal issues or nonsense cutesey stuff. It’s just not that interesting to most fans, so if there is just one choice, it’s a no brainer.

Another awesome report. I love how it does feel like I am there, sitting in with Jensen and all the fangirls. I wish someone had asked Jensen if there was a chance they could invite Luke to guest on Supernatural. That would be a nice bit of casting news to generate some buzz.

I really hope Luke finds an awesome cowboy script and gives Jensen a ring. I love Westerns, and one starring the two of them would be the best of the best. And Jensen already has his duster ready and waiting!

First of all, thank you so much for this wonderful report on Jensen’s Meet and Greet! I have attended several conventions, but, so far have not had the opportunity to do this! I like the fact that Jensen, by your lovely account, seemed very comfortable and gave wonderful, detailed answers to all of the fans’ questions.

I truly like his honesty about how he felt about season six. I thought, as Jensen did, Jared rocked as Soulless Sam. I saw that as a storyline, to get from point A to point B, but, I can see where, when you have a magic between two characters AND the actors that portray those characters, and that magic is (temporarily) stripped away, it would be very difficult with such an important essence – missing. I will never forget the tag in “All Dogs Go To Heaven” when Dean and Soulless Sam are sitting at that picnic table and “Sam” is telling Dean, “…I don’t even care about you….”

Dean flinched and I almost felt that was Jensen flinching as well.

Jensen may not have put season 6 up there in his top favorites, but, Jensen is an amazing and flawless actor and we felt every struggle Dean went through without his brother, then felt his joy when Sammy was returned!

Jensen and Jared move me so very much with their acting. That’s why I am still here as a fan after 7 years! 🙂

Thank you again for this wonderful peek into this intimate and relaxed gathering with such a special, special man! 🙂

Hi. First of all, thank you of course for your always interesting re-caps of your M&Gs with Jensen Ackles. Sometimes it almost shocks me how forthright he seems, I wonder if it ever gets him in trouble with TPTB.
I have been wondering what it means to be a fan of SPN and a fan of the actor. I’ve been thinking about this lately, because I started out as a fan of SPN and because of that became a fan of Jensen Ackles.
IMO, S6 was rocky and although I am enjoying S7 more than S6, it is definitely a different show. I had just been tweeting about this very fact with one of the bloggers from TheWinFamily Business site.
S1-5, I fondly regard them as the Kripke years, had a very different voice than S6 and S7. Kripke’s seasons, imo, had a better balance of Sci/Fi-Soap Opera, while these past seasons, feel more Soap Opera like to me. You know how a Soap Opera will decide a direction for the character and/or plot point and if you go away for 3 years, you can step right back in, because nothing has changed and/or been resolved?
I’m bringing that up, because Jensen already has done a soap opera and as a fan of the actor, I would really like to see him have an opportunity to do other things. It seems he likes to challenge himself and I’m not seeing the current SPN material as being able to do that for him anymore.
How do you go from doing episodes like What Was and Never Should Be, Lazarus Rising, and The End, to doing even Frontierland, which was a good episode (I loved it), but fairly fluffy. Eventually, will the fact he gets to direct 1 epi a year be enough?
So, how do I reconcile being a fan of SPN, and wanting the show to keep continuing, and being a fan of Jensen Ackles, who I think has the potential to do some really challenging and interesting projects, but only if the show gets cancelled. (I’m going on statements he has made re: doesn’t have time between seasons to do anything else and won’t voluntarily leave the show)?
The issue of Show vs. Actor is making me feel like a very guilty fan. It also may be adding to my frustration and enjoyment of this season. Although, I am enjoying this season, it’s become more like cotton candy to me than the gourmet meal, I felt it once was.
I want the Show to give the Actors better material-that way my torn loyalties would be healed.
With all of your studies regarding fandom and with being fangirls yourself, I was wondering if you had an opinion on what I’m experiencing.
Yes, I am trying to get “free” therapy for my fan angst :o).
Thanks again and sorry for such a long post!

Free therapy for fan angst indeed — actually, you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head. No need to choose when one show and its amazing actors can satisfy all your fannish needs! We’re still very big fans of SPN itself, and have come to love Jensen and Jared through their powerful portrayals of these characters – so we’re very hopeful that the Show will go on and will get back to being, as you put it, a gourmet meal that we can all sink our teeth into. We (especially Lynn) loved the second episode of S7, so perhaps more gourmet fare is on the way. There….feel better?🙂

Thanks so very much for this. I think Jensen is a really wonderful actor. It took me a while to give him a chance because at first I thought he was just a really pretty boy. Well he is no longer a boy or pretty but he is very talented and I hope (think) he has a long carreer ahead of him. Jared is so outgoing and funny, I see and hear so much about him, I sometimes feel like the lone Jensen fan so it’s especially nice to be able to come here and read an entire artilcal devoted to Jensen.

He isn’t? He maybe be in his early 30’s but he still looks pretty darn gorgeous to me and often rather pretty though in a more grown up, masculine way(still has the full lips, big eyes, long lashes and lovely skin after all).🙂

” he is very talented and I hope (think) he has a long carreer ahead of him. ”

Absolutely, he’s just amazing and has just SUCH a gift as an actor and a storyteller. And in these interviews and meet and greets he comes across as such a genuine, good hearted, generous person and he’s funny too, he’s so quick witted.. He’s got this air of being a “rock” in the sense that he seems like the sort of person who’ll always do his best, try to do the right thing and be there for people who need him.

You’re very welcome — and I think you meant he’s a more mature handsome now instead of pretty. Whatever adjectives you choose, I think we can all agree it adds up to something quite positive🙂 Both ‘boys’ are incredibly talented, so we’d be dumbfounded if they didn’t have long and impressive careers ahead of them.

Thanks so much for letting us participate in those probably kind of private moments with Jensen Ackles. Well, I don’t mean “private”-private… I really hope that IF you would have that, you wouldn’t let anyone participate.
Sorry… off-track…imagining my own private moment here….

*coughs*

So, I think you probably know this already, being smart and all, I think it’s a very weirdly-expressed compliment to your writing- and reporting-style that people wish you’d cover more of Jared as well. I read all your answers to those who seem upset or disappointed about you choosing one of them, so don’t feel pressured to explain it to me😉 I get it.
If I would ever have enough money, I certainly would choose as you did. It’s just my own, personal favorite, he’s the ONLY celebrity I ever fell in fan for. And yes,I have been a teenager (once upon a time). So for me, that thing alone makes him special.

Not that I don’t like Jared as well. But like some said, it’s so easy to keep track of Jared’s life, with twitting and whatever else shenanigans he has, but it’s harder for me to get that from Jensen. Which is, in fact, what I like so much about him.
He’s reserved but friendly, he’s handsome (duh) and also talented. He’s so different from Dean that it’s scary, and weirdly, I LOVE that there are not thousands of twits about his wife sprouting around the net. (no true ones, at least.

So to hear those tidbits about him liking Luke Perry (I always thought he was cute, and I *blush* liked him in the Buffy-movie *blush* but haven’t seen 8 seconds) and about his wife’s reaction to him give me all warm tingles.

Damn, I got all fangirly here. I don’t usually…

So thanks again for this, and I will look deep into my pockets when the book comes out and shake it a bit for loose coins. Because as much as I enjoy Jensen in all his glory from your blog, I also like to see what you report (in that very talented way) about Jared and all the other people you met and interviewed for it.
Keep it up

We do take it as a sort of compliment that fans would take the time to ask for more coverage of Jared here on the blog actually — hey, we get it, we’re fans too. And we’re glad fans like our writing enough to want more about everyone! There is much more in our books from everyone else we’ve interviewed — Jared, Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, and more cast and crew. Hope you enjoy!

AWWW, how great all your reports are!!!
I can SEE it, I can SEE Jensen talking to you and saying it all, it’s amazing!! Just made my day ♥ And once again I’m in awe of him.
Thank you so very much, ladies, for sharing with us! You are the best!

A very belated thank you for all these wonderful Jensen M&Gs you attend and write up for us to enjoy. Yours are the reports I look forward to after every con, especially as the show continues to shortchange fans with increasingly less attention paid to the character Jensen Ackles has made so popular all these years. I feel like your con reports are just about the only way to get any real insight into what Jensen thinks Dean’s role, or lack thereof, is anymore. I honestly don’t know what’s going on with Dean on screen unless I read Jensen’s personal take now, and these M&Gs are always the most enlightening. Plus, I love to read Jensen’s answers and thoughts about so many private moments in his life. What a lovely way for those of us who admire him so much to participate vicariously. I’d never have guessed he was a Luke Perry fan!

As someone who has attended just one of these Creation cons, trust me, we all know how expensive these things are and how, unless one has won the lottery, you have to pick and choose what to do or go for. I too chose only the Jensen M&G at the one con I attended. Sure, I’d like to do them all, but not many of us are that independently wealthy. Besides, as it’s been pointed out, there are plenty of sites that focus solely on Jared/Sam – Jester’s being just one of those. For as popular as Jensen is, it’s actually harder to find attention paid to Dean and Jensen from the usual websites, so these reports you post are like finding water in the desert. I hope you don’t stop!

Being independently wealthy would definitely be an asset when it comes to cons! We’re grateful to be able to go to what we can and love sharing the experience with the rest of fandom — especially when so many of the answers are so fascinating.🙂

Good for you that you love season 7. Personally I have given up on the show, since last half of season 5. I do love however, to read your blogs about Jensens m&g. Jensen is a talented and great actor! I wish him better projects ASAP🙂

Question – your book is aimed at/about fans of Supernatural, right? So why alienate one segment of the population by only focusing on the other segment? It’s one thing to have a favorite actor/character – that’s fine. But if you want your book to be a huge success, it just seems to me that it would be good business sense to cater to all aspects of fandom. At least throw out a Jared tidbid here and there. Everyone loves Jensen and I personally have seen 7 reports of his Chi-Con M&G and none for Jared. Not YOUR fault, but still….you always say Jared is a great guy/sweet, etc. yet you show him no (and, by extension, his fans) no love. Thanks.

Good question, Trudy — our books (as opposed to this blog) are absolutely about all aspects and segments of fandom. Jared contributed at least as much as Jensen to the books, as did many others on the creative side of Supernatural who we interviewed extensively for the book but have never been able to do update interviews with for this blog (Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, etc). The blog is purely for fun, definitely not for profit – in fact, we make nothing at all, not even ad revenue. We just like sharing our chats with the awesome people who make our favorite show when we can catch up with them. Unfortunately, you can’t just give the J’s a call and ask for a chat. Alas. We do hope you’ll want to read our books to hear lots more from Jared, which will make it very obvious what a great guy he is. That said, we hear you — we’re saving our pennies to cover both Jensen and Jared’s M&G’s at the next con, so stay tuned!

I feel compelle to answer Trudy myself as a fan. I’ve seen reports of Jared’s M&Gs and they seem more like stream of consciousness on off-topic questions. What I value about Jensen’s M&Gs is they always answer show questions, and there are always weighty surprise answers. I hope this blog manages to still do the Jensen report, even if they target Jared next time. But of the two, the Jensen one is more show inclined. It’s not a matter of fans, just facts.

Thanks so much! Great transcript. And I have to be honest – fangirling aside – Jensen often looks completely exhausted these days (gorgeous, but exhausted.) Reading this, I kind of thought backed up those feelings, that perhaps the glory days of SPN are behind us, and that, like Buffy, seven seasons would be a great note to end on. (Leaving all the actors but especially Jensen some time to rest and recuperate, before hopefully going on to better and bigger things.) I love SPN with all my heart but I want it to go out with a bang. Just my thoughts obviously.

It’s definitely a tough schedule, but both the cast and crew continue to love the Show and I think they’ll miss it — it really is like a family. We also have no doubt they’ll go on to more awesome projects when SPN does end. But we’re not ready!!!

hi there – thank you so much for another enjoyable read. i love that jensen fanboyed (okay, kind of) luke perry, but even more so, luke recognizes him from the show (and hopefully comes across a good cowboy script!).
i love the little BTS tidbits such as bob singer’s voiceover and the music choices in jensen’s episode. my favorite,however, is the little story of jensen and jared’s reactions to the romcom line. LOL!
excellent report; one day i’d love to participate in one but until then, i’ll look to you for filling me in.😀

Hey you! So glad you enjoyed the little tidbits we were able to share — we also adore the behind the scenes glimpses, they’re always fascinating. You might want to check out our next post soon, btw — it has some awesome photos of the boys🙂

Great report, thanks for doing this for us. He gave some really great answers. It’s almost surprising when he’s candid like that, he seems to keep it locked down a lot. I can see how working with Soulless Sam would’ve thrown him off. Just watching Sam an hour a week was disconcerting. As Sera said at Paley “it was a weird and uncomfortable place to put the boys.” (It was a ballsy move and had a big payoff, but yeah, weird and uncomfortable in the meantime.) However, I personally felt that some interesting things were going on with Dean as well, really big shifts and evolutions, like going from suburban dad back to hunting, the conflict between his duty as a hunter and a brother and his desire to be with Ben and Lisa, etc. I really loved that whole story arc, that whole exploration of what would happen to Dean if he finally got to live a normal apple-pie life.

I too would love to see reports on Jared as well, but I’m thankful for whatever you can give us. You can’t be everywhere and do everything, up to you to decide where you put your resources.

Thanks so much for your understanding and appreciation – it’s much appreciated🙂 You’re right about the interesting shifts in Dean’s character too, and we’re hopeful that more are coming as he deals with the guilt of taking down Sam’s wall and some of his own decisions lately. Fingers crossed! And we do hope to catch Jared’s M&G at the next con so we can report on that too!

Someone just posted a report on Jared’s M&G, if you would like to add a link to that somehwere for the fans who are missing it. No one can do it all, but we’re a big and active (and kickass!) fandom, so we can all do our bit and share.🙂

Usually I follow your internal dialog mixed with the reports, but I did get a little confused about how you reacted to Jensen’s ‘fangirling’ Luke Perry…I couldn’t tell if you thought he was actually excited or if he was being uber-cool about it. Can you clarify?

Sorry, didn’t mean to be cryptic! Definitely thought he was actually excited, but amusingly unaware of just how excited he was sounding. Love that he told such an endearing story, and sounded so much like a fan — to which we could definitely relate🙂

Hi! I’ve been reading your reports for a while now and just wanted to say thank you for always providing such detailed reports. Its feels like I’m actually there!

Over the years I’ve been watching Jensen Ackles play Dean Winchester, I’ve come to adore him, even more so when I first stumbled onto a convention report, then conventions vids of the man. He’s just so genuine and down to earth and kind! Jared is a big goofball and a sweetheart, but I admit that there is something special about Jensen that just draws my attention every time.

Reading this report, and the ones before, and how he answers the fans, takes the time to think about his answers and simultaneously make it fun by, for example, bringing out his iphone and showing ya’ll videos of him at the gun range, just makes me admire him more. Especially considering how reserved he was at earlier cons. And I’m really being a fangirl now, lol, so I’ll wrap this up.

Thank you so much for sharing these detailed reports of Jensen’s M&Gs!

P.S. So its been asked over and over when your book is coming out and from what I read it will be sometime in March. My question is, how do I order one?? Or is it too soon to know precisely?

So glad you’re enjoying our reports, and we very much agree with you about Jensen — he seems to try hard to answer fans’ questions, but he’s also a laid back and fun guy. Our books will be available at all the standard places, amazon, etc — but we’ll also keep you posted here on how to order!

Apologies to the JA fans I may upset with this post, esp as it’s my first here but reading the part where he criticizes the way a scene was written and says he ‘re-wrote’ it, he comes off really unprofessional, which surprised me. From what little I know about JA, I’ve been told he is a consummate pro. Then I delved and read other transcripts where he complained about S6 so much that Gamble called him to talk about it. JA, marvelous an actor as he is, needs to cool it a little with the public criticism of the writing team. Obviously, I don’t know if he’d talked about his story issues to the writers before he began using the cons as a platform but still, it’s not the optimum way to get your point across. He didn’t mention the writer by name but it’s not hard to guess which ep he was talking about – he didn’t exactly make it vague. Or if he was trying to be vague, he really really failed.

Writers rarely get the credit when things go well, so when an actor openly takes them to task, they don’t like it. (I’m a writing assistant on a show – not this one – and I’ve had a few writers cry on my shoulder and swear quiet revenge on certain actors for things they’ve said in public or to the fans. Some writers get their own back if they can; blocking actors from parts, giving another actor all the good lines and such. Petty, but there you go) Maybe he was comfortable enough in a con-setting to bluntly say what he thought or maybe he was sucking up to the crowd (it happens! Actors love people who love them) but the problem is, transcripts can be read by anyone, not just HIS fans, and objevtively it seems he’s gotten a little too OK with throwing the writers under a bus. Do they deserve it? Maybe but that’s not the point.

I don’t think writers are above being critiqued at ALL but for his sake, he should be more diplomatic. There are ways to express yourself without being offensive, which, I’m sorry but I think he was. If I was Robbie Thompson, I’d be furious that he publicly crapped on my script, a script that was approved. He’s not only insulting Thompson but also those who gave the script the go-ahead. What does JA gain from this, aside from pissed-off writers/producers?

He and JP are kings of the castle on SPN (so no ‘Joey-Falling-Down-The-Elevator-Shaft’ death scene for JA, I imagine) but the show won’t last forever and it’s stuff like this that could come back to bite him when he goes for other roles later on, roles we’d LOVE to see him in, cos the guy has it all – talent, charisma, comic timing AND dramatic chops and the camera just loves him. In point of fact, if he plays his cards right, there’s not much JA couldn’t do as an actor. With the right attitude, he can have any kind of career he wants. It’d be a great pity if comments like the ones above got in his way. I’m NOT saying that his comments will absolutely come back to haunt him but why risk it? To impress a handful of fans? It’s unnecessary in a room where people already think he’s the best thing since sliced bread and really bad form, whether or not he meant his words to come off derogatorily.

Put this way, if Thompson was interviewed and said, ” I wrote a script where the actors re-jigged some dialogue because they weren’t good enough to pull off what I wrote”, I doubt JA would appreciate that but it technically amounts to the same thing. Thompson may be guest-writing for TV shows NOW but who knows how successful he might be? I’m also a little wryly amused that Ackles used the word ‘re-write’. Even from his own description, ‘re-write’ seems a strong word to use for what he actually DID, and a touch OTT, to be honest. Actors ad-lib and change lines all the time but most of them wouldn’t say they ‘re-wrote’ a scene. It’s not quite cricket!

Don’t get me wrong, I think JA is extraordinarily gifted and he obviously adores the fans (perhaps a little too much) but he either needs to demand a sit down with the writing team and hash out his gripes with them PRIVATELY like a big boy or buck up and stop telling tales out of school. Maybe study some David Tennant interviews from his 10th Doctor era. DT has the ‘appease the fan/talk up the writer’ balance down to an art form, managing to discuss his show without sounding like a brown-noser OR a bitch. Though, in fairness, I think most current actors could do with studying DT, interview-and-promotion-wise, because in that respect, the man is peerless. He wraps everyone ’round his finger.

Pardon the huge post. Bless you if you made it to the end of it. But I had a bee in my bonnet and I needed to rant, cos I very much LIKE The Ackles and I firmly believe he could follow the trajectory of a Ford or Redford. The above was written with admiration for his work and I hope that’s clear. Just don’t you go and re-write it, Ackles, you cheeky man. 🙂

LOL, we did in fact make it to the end of your well-articulated post🙂 Point taken. I do think he meant it as a funny story, not a complaint, which doesn’t always come through well in a jotted down report – he took pains to say they didn’t change WHAT was said (which turned out to be very true), just ‘manned it up’ a bit. And he also prefaced it by saying that when you’re a new writer, you can write a great script but might not know the characters as deeply as those who’ve been writing them a long time. He’s said before that he really respects the writers and seems to get that, in the immortal words of Chuck, “writing is hard!” Thanks for your thoughtful comment — in our humble opinions, Robbie can most definitely stay!! We also very much like The Ackles, as you may have guessed🙂

Fan Phenomena: Supernatural on Amazon

Fangasm on Amazon

Fandom at the Crossroads on Amazon

Fan Culture: Theory/Practice on Amazon

Our Story

This is the story of two college professors who fell hard for a show called Supernatural. Obsession, devotion, fascination, call it what you will. We decided to figure out what was going on with us by writing a book on fandom from the fans' perspective. As academics do, we hit the libraries and internet, accumulating stacks of articles and hundreds of pages of research. We typed and revised and theorized, quoted and footnoted, and ended up with an academic text crammed full of the current scholarship on fandom.

This is not that book.

Somewhere along the line, the research took a back seat to the road trip as we traveled across the US and Canada interviewing the show’s fans, as well as the actors and directors, writers, journalists, bloggers, convention organizers, significant others and insignificant hangers-on. Fangasm! is the story of that year-long roadtrip -- the surprises we never saw coming, the secrets uncovered, the behind-the-scenes insights, the heartwarming and heartbreaking fan confessions. It’s also the story of our shared obsession and the friendship that sustains us through 4 am line-ups, overtaxed credit cards, canceled flights and airport camp-outs, and of course the occasional accusations of insanity.

Order Fangasm now from Amazon by clicking the link at the top of this page.

Media Coverage

Check out the February 2016 issue of Nylon Magazine - we're quoted in an article about fandom!

What Else We’re Writing

We've written several articles for Supernatural Magazine, including features on the fan convention experience, and behind the scenes on the set. We have also written the academic version of this story, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships , and edited a collection on fan culture, Fan Culture: Theory/Practice.
You can also order our book Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, with chapters by cast, crew and fans of Supernatural. Check out what Misha Collins and Richard Speight, Jr. have to say in their insightful (and amusing) chapters. Click the links at the top of the page to order.

And coming in May 2017, look for an exciting new book - Family Don't End With Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Changed Lives with powerful chapters by ten Supernatural actors including Jared Padalecki!

Kathy is also the Principal Editor and Lynn on the Editorial Board of The Journal Of Fandom Studies, published by Intellect. The most recent issue is available now.